Posted by Lotte
on Sunday, November 15, 2009.
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Life
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Wow, a seven month hiatus leaves quite a gap, doesn't it? Rather than try to fill it with a big long summary of what has happened in the last half year (now that makes it sound even longer...), I will jump right back into current affairs.

Yesterday marked exactly 12 weeks into a new pregnancy! A little bit of a milestone so I thought I'd share it. A sibling for A. is due at the end of May, so we will be starting up the baby machine once again. Hope everything goes well.

May is still a long time away so we have plenty of time to enjoy being just the three of us. The enjoying part will commence next week, when we leave for a 12 day break to Florida! Nothing like a winter break to a sunny place to beat the fatigued look of a three-month pregnant lady (or so I hope). The vacation is a family visit really, and we're looking forward to spending some time together on the beach and at the Thanksgiving dinner table. I also intend to do lots of holiday shopping, and not just for everyone else...

The holiday season is one of my favorite times of year and so I am already filled with anticipation. I will leave only one thing to chance and that is the snowfall. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

ps. Summer was great, back yard received a serious upgrade, curtains are up and screen doors in place. I couldn't resist ;)

And just like that, it happened. Spring has arrived. After my ranting about the weather I probably didn't deserve it, but I'm not complaining anymore! I've spent some lovely days in the sun last week and the vitamin D obviously did me some good.

The sun also triggered some other things:

- a desire to fix up the garden. To this end we went to scope out tiles this weekend, and are currently drawing up a garden plan. To be continued.

- the realization that I still don't like bugs in my house. Screen doors are due in the next couple of weeks.

- a general feeling of "we need to finish the house!" All kinds of things need to be done before we can claim it to be anywhere near finished. Starting points are putting up curtains and removing wires from sight.

Who knew spring came with all that? But I don't mind; as long as the sun keeps shining, I am ready to roll!

Posted by Lotte
on Friday, March 13, 2009.
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Life
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I like winter, I really do. I like the snow, the freezing cold, coming home from a snow storm to enjoy a hot mug of tea. God knows I love wearing turtleneck sweaters.

Unfortunately, I live in a sea climate. Not the Mediterranean sea climate either. I live in a North-West European sea climate. This means that the picture of winter painted above is rarely ever accurate. Winters here consist of a lot of rain, wind, and daytime temperatures of anywhere between -3 degrees Celsius (that's around 27 for you Fahrenheit-oriented lot) to +9 degrees C (48F). We are lucky to have any snow in a given year, and ice-skating seems more and more to be a thing of the past. These are the winters I don't like very much.

So now that we are halfway through March and the temperatures are very slowly climbing to 11, 12, 13 degrees (51-55F), I have had enough. My aunt in Florida emailed me in early February that the weather was really starting to be lovely again. Yuk, I should move.

I want to leave my coat at home and enjoy the warm sun on my face, even if I still have to wear a sweater. I remember springtime in North Carolina, where the winter weather changed to lovely spring in just two weeks time. That is my kind of climate. I am longing for spring, and maybe in a month or so it will have arrived full swing, though I am hoping for an early start this year.

Posted by Lotte
on Thursday, March 12, 2009.
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Life
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Okay, so here we go. It has taken me some time to jump on the blogger bandwagon (only a couple of years behind everyone else, but who's counting right?), but here I finally am. I don't yet know what the blog will be about, but this is of secondary importance to me as writing is sort of therapeutic. Also, I never think ahead of what I'm going to write, I just start typing away and hope for some sort of coherence. Keep that in mind when one day you are reading one of my posts and think to yourself "what in the world is she talking about?"

A few details on me and my life:

I'm married and have a 20 month-old son. I'm also a student in university trying to finish her MA thesis. Juggling the son and thesis leaves little time for other activities, but I don't let that hold me back. Also we just moved to a bigger home in the suburbs of a large city.